Every financial life has a rough patch here and there and sometimes temporarily stretching things from paycheck to paycheck is unavoidable. Avoid making living paycheck to paycheck your way of life with these tips.

Living paycheck to paycheck is a dangerous game to play and short of a sudden financial catastrophe that completely wipes you out, you should avoid such an arrangement at all costs. Over at The Simple Dollar they've put together a guide to weaning yourself off paycheck to paycheck living that includes one particularly hazardous financial habit you should break:

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Don't use your ATM receipt or check ledger as "permission" to spend. If you've ever looked at an ATM receipt or at your checkbook ledger to find out if you can afford something, the answer is that you can't. Don't even bother to look. You can't afford it. Looking at that receipt and then going ahead with the purchase is nothing more than an agreement that you want to continue living paycheck to paycheck. If you're tempted to peek or to use your balance as justification that an unnecessary purchase is okay, you're perpetuating living paycheck to paycheck. You're choosing to be chained to your desk, at the mercy of your boss.